(In this post from the Joplin City Government Facebook page, the effects of the Proposition B Pension Sales Tax, depending on the vote, are explained.) Public Safety Staffing & Compensation
Proposition Police & Fire includes funding for:
A 23% pay increase for Police Officers and Firefighters.
Why?
Currently, starting pay in Joplin is below the starting pay in comparable regional cities such as Springfield, Bentonville, and Jefferson City.
If the measure is approved, the new starting pay would still remain below the average starting pay of our benchmark cities.
The spending plan would allocate:
- Approximately $2 million for police personnel pay scale adjustments
- Approximately $2 million for fire personnel pay scale adjustments
- Guaranteed in negotiated union contracts
Prop Police & Fire also includes funding for:
Additional staffing needed according to staffing studies, to keep up with calls for service and reduce response times.
- Up to 9 police officers
- Up to 6 firefighters
If the measure is not approved:
The existing Prop B Pension Sales Tax will expire once pension obligations are fulfilled, and that revenue stream will end.
Expiration of the current tax would leave no dedicated funding for competitive pay or additional public safety personnel. It will also reduce the City’s ability to fund capital improvements for facilities, vehicles and equipment for Police and Fire.
As always, voters are encouraged to review the full ballot language and FAQs before Election Day.
More information: https://www.joplinmo.org/1266/PropPoliceFire
4 comments:
Last time the “promised” it would “fix” the retirement funding problem. They also said the tax would only fund police and fire departments. Instead they gave all city employees raises after the tax passed. We can’t trust the city council to do what they say they will.
Was that the time that positions were eliminated so those funds could also go toward a redistribution of pay? Then Leslie got her grubby hands on it a mucked it up?
That’s not true. Every penny of Prop B has gone exactly where it was supposed to. funding the existing plan and covering the costs of transferring existing employees to the Lagers Retirement system.
Prop B has done so well that the pension is expected to reach its Funding target 6 years early.
The original tax was to fund the police and fire retirement. It has been used for that purpose. The goal was to have it 120% funded, to cover any possibility of the program going into default. It has done everything that was supposed to do.
That fund will soon reach 120%.
The continuation of the tax will fund pay for police and fire wages.
For the idiot who was blaming the finance director, the city is in good solid financial shape because of her work. The pension is now secure, and raises were granted before when inflation raised the sales taxes collected.
With the extension of this tax, the city will now be able to compete with all departments to hire better people.
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